Issue brief - 6/25/09

June 24, 10:21 PMSeattle Public Education ExaminerWilda Heard

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1. Bellevue Librarians Reassigned 

To some Bellevue parents, it's hard to believe that all five of the city's high schools made it onto Newsweek's list of 100 best schools in the U.S. — and all five are about to lose their school librarians….

"You're not going to have a librarian? I can't fathom it," said Michelle Robertson, the parent of a student at Tillicum Middle School.

But the School Board has been equally adamant that moving librarians into the classroom is the best way to keep high-school class sizes from mushrooming.

The decision was made by each one of the school principals, said School Board President Chris Marks, and the board does not intend to overrule them because "principals really ought to know what the actual needs are, and serve them the best," she said.

Like all public-school districts throughout the state, Bellevue is scrambling to make up a cut in state money after the Washington Legislature trimmed $800 million from K-12 funding for the 2009-10 school year. Bellevue will lose $5.5 million next year, which is about a 3.4 percent reduction in its general-fund budget.

Librarians at four of the district's middle schools, four high schools and one school that spans grades 6-12 are being reassigned to classrooms for the next school year. The move saves about $500,000 and helps keep class sizes smaller. Even with the change, some core-subject classes may have well over 30 students next year, Marks said….

 

1. Principals are leaders in their learning communities. Role of the Principal  Leaders sometimes must make tought decisions.
2. Schools need adequate and stable funding to deliver a good basic education.
3. School librarians serve an important purpose of helping students, is the staff replacing the librarians able to truly replace the librarian function? 

1. Will the community support strong principals when they make unpopular decisions?
2. Is the real issue insufficient revenue to fund schools rather than the reassigning the librarians?
3. Should there be community input when there are tough decisions about what to cut?  

2. College Financial Aid Alerts 

1. Deadline for College Bound Scholarships 

State ninth-graders have just a few more days to apply for the College Bound Scholarship, which guarantees four years of higher-education funding for certain low-income students. This year's deadline is Tuesday.

College Bound Scholarships are available to students who qualify for free or reduced lunches, live in foster homes or receive basic food benefits.

To qualify, students must stay out of trouble and graduate from high school with a minimum 2.0 grade-point average.

The simple, one-page applications can be found online in eight languages at www.hecb.wa.gov/paying/waaidprgm/CollegeBoundScholarship.asp. 

2. Financial Aid Form Changes  

Today, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan outlined another key component of the Administration's higher education agenda: its plan to simplify the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The form imposes a needlessly difficult obstacle in the path of 16 million college students and their families each year. Each student is asked as many as 153 questions, most of which have little or no effect on actual financial aid packages. Experts believe that the difficulty of the application and unpredictability of the aid awards undermine student aid's ability to reach students who are unsure whether they can afford college. And there are 1.5 million enrolled students who are probably eligible for Pell grants but failed to apply.

In the coming months, the Departments of Education and Treasury will work together to simplify the financial aid process by modernizing the online application, seeking legislation that will eliminate unnecessary questions, and creating an easy process for students to apply by using tax data already available. The end result will be an application that requests only easily obtainable personal information. Students will be able to complete an application with only basic, personal information and a few clicks of their mouse.

Three Steps To A Simpler Application

Today, Secretary Duncan is announcing (1) a shorter and simpler online application that skips unnecessary questions, (2) legislation to remove more than half of the financial questions, and (3) a web application that will let some families easily answer the remaining financial questions with data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).